They Were Unsuccessful, However, But,
Having Found A Part Of Their Game Untouched, They Brought It Back,
And This, With Other Game Killed After Their Chase Of The Sioux,
Gave Them Three Thousand Pounds Of Meat; They Had Killed Thirty-Six Deer,
Fourteen Elk, And One Wolf.
By the latter part of February, the party were able to get
their boats from the ice.
These were dragged ashore,
and the work of making them ready for their next voyage was begun.
As the ice in the river began to break up, the Mandans had great sport
chasing across the floating cakes of ice the buffalo who were tempted
over by the appearance of green, growing grass on the other side.
The Indians were very expert in their pursuit of the animals,
which finally slipped from their insecure footing on the drifting ice,
and were killed.
At this point, April 7, 1805, the escorting party, the voyageurs,
and one interpreter, returned down the river in their barge.
This party consisted of thirteen persons, all told,
and to them were intrusted several packages of specimens
for President Jefferson, with letters and official reports.
The presents for Mr. Jefferson, according to the journal,
"consisted of a stuffed male and female antelope, with their skeletons,
a weasel, three squirrels from the Rocky Mountains, the skeleton
of a prairie wolf, those of a white and gray hare, a male
and female blaireau, [badger] or burrowing dog of the prairie,
with a skeleton of the female, two burrowing squirrels,
a white weasel, and the skin of the louservia [loup-servier,
or lynx], the horns of a mountain ram, or big-horn, a pair
of large elk horns, the horns and tail of a black-tailed deer,
and a variety of skins, such as those of the red fox,
white hare, marten, yellow bear, obtained from the Sioux;
also a number of articles of Indian dress, among which was
a buffalo robe representing a battle fought about eight years
since between the Sioux and Ricaras against the Mandans
and Minnetarees, in which the combatants are represented on
horseback. . . . Such sketches, rude and imperfect as they are,
delineate the predominant character of the savage nations.
If they are peaceable and inoffensive, the drawings usually
consist of local scenery and their favorite diversions.
If the band are rude and ferocious, we observe tomahawks,
scalping-knives, bows and arrows, and all the engines
of destruction. - A Mandan bow, and quiver of arrows;
also some Ricara tobacco-seed, and an ear of Mandan corn:
to these were added a box of plants, another of insects,
and three cases containing a burrowing squirrel, a prairie hen,
and four magpies, all alive." . . .
The articles reached Mr. Jefferson safely and were long on view at his
Virginia residence, Monticello. They were subsequently dispersed,
and some found their way to Peale's Museum, Philadelphia. Dr. Cones,
the zealous editor of the latest and fullest edition of Lewis and
Clark's narrative, says that some of the specimens of natural history
were probably extant in 1893.
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